A year after listeriosis, our food is no saferVancouver Sun ‘We haven’t really learned all the lessons that we should have from those outbreaks’ When the Canadian Food Inspection Agency first announced a recall of foods containing pistachios in early spring, 25 products sold under three different brands were ensnared in the salmonella scare. By the time the food-safety investigation was finally completed in June, the recall captured 70 products and 18 brands in Canada — all containing potentially contaminated pistachios from Terra Bella Inc. of California. At the end of it all, the second largest pistachio company in the United States admitted it did not know salmonella contamination could occur on raw pistachios. The striking revelation, made on the heels of a recall that was drawn-out because it took time for manufacturers to figure out whether they used the tainted ingredient, is hardly a boost of confidence for consumers who are still digesting a string of listeriosis post-mortems about how Canada’s food system failed Canadians last August. Twenty-two people, most of them elderly Canadians living in provincial long-term care facilities or hospitals, died after consuming deli meats contaminated with listeria produced at a government-inspected plant operated by a leading food company.

“Whether the listeriosis outbreak has led to an overall improvement in the awareness of food safety among industry is maybe arguable. .”

There’s no doubt more rigorous tracking of listeria and sophisticated sanitation protocols are in place at Canada’s federally regulated meat plants, where operators were shaken by the realization that steps taken at Maple Leaf Foods Inc., an industry leader in food safety, weren’t as good as they needed to be to deal with the ubiquitous bacterium. But the agency is still wrestling with a resource problem that sees one meat inspector responsible for an average of five facilities, while struggling with a new oversight system that favours auditing of company paperwork over time on the plant floor. And the food safety system is much more than listeria and ready-to-eat meat plants, especially as the system becomes increasingly globalized and the ingredient chain in processed foods becomes more complicated.

Public health officials believe cases of food-borne illnesses affect between 11 to 13 million Canadians every year and kill up to 500 people.

But this globalized food system makes food-borne illnesses the largest class of emerging infectious diseases in Canada — a fact that appears to have caught the Public Health Agency of Canada off guard, according to Sheila Weatherill, who came to this conclusion after completing her independent investigation into last year’s listeriosis outbreak.

“I feel reasonably good about the level of safety of food in Canada, but our vulnerabilities are substantial. We could have a food-borne illness outbreak tomorrow from produce that would affect people from one end of this country to another. We don’t know how to address that appropriately at the moment. We’re continuing to put manure on crops and feeding these organisms that cause food-borne illness in humans to animals that we then eat as food and produce that is fertilized by the waste materials from them. Look, that’s just not too terribly bright in my mind.”

“I really believe what is fundamentally changed about food safety in Canada — and it is probably the best omen for the future — is the level of awareness that has played out at a number of levels of the past 12 months because, ultimately, I don’t think you can affect the kind of culture change that I think most people would say is fundamental to the strongest possible food safety system without that level of awareness.”

In the meantime, watch for the latest recall to trickle out, just like the pistachio one.

Deli meats recalled over Listeria concerns CTV.ca – TORONTO – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume some ready-to-eat deli meats from Delstar Foods Inc. as they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

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